Moms pulled their kids in sleds along Beacon Avenue South, passing one couple tromping around in snowshoes.

Daniels said she didn’t have to work Thursday, but liked the snow. She cheerfully greeted passengers, asked them where they needed to go, and even stopped for people, arms flailing, running toward bus stops.

“I love this,” she said, adding to a passenger getting off, “Have a good day!”

Perhaps one of the day’s bigger miracles came after one Grinch-like bus driver, stopping along South Jackson Street, told a young man in a red parka he couldn’t ride unless he paid the $1.50 fare – which he didn’t have. Not to be outdone, the man jumped off the bus and ran two icy blocks without falling – a feat that brought looks of amazement from slipping passersby. Once into the ride-free zone, he hopped back onto the same bus.

With compact snow and ice nearly everywhere, even police cars and fire trucks with sirens blaring went a little slower.

Ice, people said, was the main factor behind their decisions to take the bus.

“I haven’t fallen yet,” announced James Woods, a Beacon Hill resident, as he hopped on the southbound Metro 36 bus.

The bus driver, Paulette Daniels, laughed and told him, “Me, neither, but I’m not trying it again with coffee in one hand.”

Most buses were standing-room only, and numerous tales of icy close-calls and near-misses could be heard above the clacking, chained-up wheels.

“It’s scary,” as one woman, walking toward the International District/Chinatown gate, put it.